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This leg takes place in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but everyone has to get there first. After a lengthy sequence of airport intrigue, Jill and Thomas capitalize on a seven-hour flight lead. After squeezing and drinking a quantity of sugar cane juice, there's a Detour that's a choice between transporting either bricks or large meal canisters (with Jill and Thomas choosing the former). After the Detour, Jill and Thomas U-Turn Brook and Claire while the latter team is still back in Mumbai. After that, the Road Block requires the assembly of one of the city's ubiquitous bicycle rickshaws. Even Jill's problems with that can't eat up their huge lead, and they win another leg. Behind them, Nat and Kat use the other half of the Double U-Turn to ding Chad and Stephanie, who keep getting lost anyway. In the end, it's a race for last between Team QVC and the engaged couple. As the sun goes down, Brook and Claire come in fourth, and Chad and Stephanie will get to concentrate on their relationship.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!"This is the city of Muscat, in the sultanate of Oman," Phil reminds us, segueing from a comment about its "rich history" to Al-Alam Palace, neither of which we learn anything about except for how the latter is "exotic," and also the eighth Pit Stop. Chad and Stephanie, having won the leg (and having been pretty damn happy about it, we're reminded), leave at 11:10 AM. They'll be flying 2,000 miles to Bangladesh, specifically Dhaka, which Phil says is the most densely populated city in the world. Must be nice, then, if so many people want to live there. Upon landing, they'll proceed to Sundarban Square Supermarket (which looks nothing like our Western supermarkets, more like an outdoor famer's supermarket, or a supermarketplace). They'll have to find a sugar cane press, which is a hand-cranked machine that squeezes sugar cane like an old-fashioned laundry dryer. Only instead of water, it squeezes out sugar cane juice, a pint of which one team member will have to drink before getting their clue. Hell, carbonate that shit and I'll take some.
Still on the mat, Stephanie reads from the clue, "Somewhere on this leg you will encounter a Double U-Turn." Whatever that is. Does it mean the team that gets U-Turned has to do both Detours twice? That seems harsh. Anyway, off they go, hailing a taxi and already having decided this far in advance to U-Turn Nat and Kat if they get the chance. Chad interviews that they hope to stay in first the rest of the way, and in the taxi, he adds, "And I just don't want to lose to a pair of girls, too." Stephanie laughs instead of elbowing his sexist ass.
Jill and Thomas are leaving at 11:27, which means they arrived at the Pit Stop 13 minutes ahead of Chad and Stephanie, not counting their 30-minute penalty. They're also hoping to get to the U-Turn first, figuring that other teams will want to U-Turn them. Which may be true, but not necessarily for the reasons they think.
Nick and Vicki are leaving at 12:57 PM, which is a hell of a gap. In the cab, Vicki's excited about Bangladesh, but Nick's not excited about the Double U-Turn. As though they have anything to fear. Why waste a U-Turn on a team that should have self-destructed six or seven legs ago in the first place?
Chad and Stephanie arrive at the airport and go into a travel agency office, where they learn that they can get a flight that will have them in Bangladesh tomorrow at 12:00 PM. Jill and Thomas arrive while the agent is still doing the typing, and get on the same flight. Are you thinking, so much for the airport? Think again.
In Mumbai, India, Nat and Kat are wandering the airport when they spot Team QVC and Chad/Stephanie sleeping in some seats that look actually comfortable for the purpose, unlike most airports I've been in where the seats seem designed to keep you not only awake but actively pissed off. They wander on without waking them up, cheered to know they're not alone.
Jill and Thomas finish the Detour and get their clue ,which reads, "Make your way on foot to Dhaka River Port." Aren't they kind of already there?
Back in Mumbai, boarding is called for the Dhaka flight, and Brook and Claire are pretty jazzed to see Team @ on their flight. "Stayin' alive," Chad falsettos. But on the other side of the subcontinent, Thomas is talking about using the U-Turn on Brook and Claire. "They are always at the top," he says. Team QVC has actually only won a single leg to Team @'s three, but he's probably correct in the sense that Team QVC is more consistently in the front of the pack. Not that I think he's sat down and done the math, because even I haven't done that.
Now Phil's among the crowds in the street, reminding us that a U-Turn shows up at the end of a Detour, allowing one team to make another team do the Detour they didn't already do. But this being the first-ever "Double U-Turn," two teams can each U-Turn another team, "Potentially causing a major shift in the standings of the race." Oh, whatever on that last part; what I like about this is that if a U-Turn can knock out one team, a Double U-Turn can still only knock out one team. Effectively, it screws two teams equally, restoring a lot of the suspense that a single U-Turn defuses. In short, I approve. I just have a few logistical questions. Like, can a team that's already been U-Turned U-Turn another team? Can two teams U-Turn the same team, making them do one Detour option twice? And wouldn't the time to introduce a Double U-Turn have been when there were more than five teams left so there could be more than one team not involved in U-Turning or being U-Turned? I'm sure we'll find all of this out season.
Thomas announces that they're going to U-Turn Brook and Claire, saying you can't pass up the opportunity, although Jill seems to feel bad about it. That done, they open their clue directing them to take a bicycle rickshaw to Nazira Bazaar. Jill worries, "If Brook and Claire don't get eliminated, we're going to look like such assholes." Trust me, Jill: in Thomas's case, Team QVC's elimination or survival is not a relevant variable of that equation.